Pandemics will become more and more fashionable due to globalization, which spreads diseases with total ease. The world came to a complete standstill in 2020 with the coronavirusand now we cross our fingers that monkeypoxbe appeased without causing further havoc.
The truth is that this same situation that we once experienced can now occur more frequently, and common triggers such as Population growth, globalization and antibiotic resistancea new risk is added result of climate change: the melting of ice at the poles and glaciers.
Now, A team of scientists from Ohio State University pierced the ice sheets in a tibetan glacier to extract samples from the Chinese plateau, discovering nearly 1,700 viruses more than 15,000 years old. The alarm goes off when it is verified that Of the 33 virus families identified, 28 are completely new to science.
However, it should be noted that Scientists say drilling into prehistoric ice poses no risk to human healthsince the viruses found in the Tibetan glacier mainly infected other microbes, and not humans or animals. However, it is an indication of how those that could infect us act.
The impact of climate change on viruses
Glacial ice acts as a time capsulepreserving organisms that may offer clues about how viruses have evolved and survived in extreme conditions. The purpose is to be able to study the behavior of these organisms over the last 41,000 years to understanding how viruses were related to large-scale changes in the Earth’s climatesince these viruses date back to a time when there was a drastic climatic transition, from the cold Last Glacial Stage to a warm Holocene.
The need to investigate the viruses found arises because, as glaciers around the world continue to melt at an accelerated rate, The risks of releasing significant numbers of ancient viruses and other microorganisms into the environment are growingThis situation raises questions about how these microorganisms might interact with modern ecosystems and what impact they might have.
ZhiPing Zhong, a researcher at Ohio State University, explains that “this indicates at least the possible connection between viruses and climate change“. Besides, More than 400 of these viruses have also been identified in other regions of the world.suggesting that Some may have been transported from as far away as the Middle East or even the Arctic.
The future of viruses
Knowing that the viruses found in the glacier have genetic signatures that allow them to infect cells in extremely cold environmentsa surprising feature that shows how viruses can adapt to extreme conditions, it is essential to delve deeper into these investigations, because these signatures are not easy to identify.
However, the method developed by Zhi-Ping to decontaminate and study these microorganisms in ice It could be key to searching for similar genetic sequences in other extreme environments, such as Mars, the Moon, or even in inhospitable regions of the Earth, such as the Atacama Desert.
